tonight, can he outpace bill clinton in the history books? can he be truly transformational, the word he used in saying what bill clinton was not. and that is the question. and don't think the two of those guys, clinton and obama, aren't keeping a close watch on the scoreboard. and that's "hardball" for now. thanks for being with us. "the ed show" with ed schultz starts right now. good evening, americans, and welcome to "the ed show" from new york. the republicans' president's day sale on the economy a total bust. tonight the truth on our spending problem. this is "the ed show." let's get to work. >> there you go. good job. >> four years after the stimulus saved us from depression, republicans are dragging us into recession. >> spending is the problem. >> tonight the facts versus republican fantasy on the economy and the sequester. >> we have had a massive cover-up on the part -- >> but a massive cover-up of what? >> john mccain is at it again. >> do you care whether four americans died? >> retired colonel lawrence

wilkerson on the blind republican rage over benghazi. the luv gov is hitting the trail again. >> i'm a bottom line kind of guy. it's going to hurt. >> we'll show you his questionable ad. plus, marco rubio disagrees with his own immigration plan because the president likes it. mississippi finally got around to banning slavery this month. and the oscar-nominated movie "silver linings playbook" is shining new light on treating mental illness. director david o. russell joins me tonight for the conversation. good to have you with us tonight, folks. thanks for watching. it's been exactly four years since an economic disaster was averted. government spending undoubtedly was the key, the stimulus package. the president of the united states signed the american recovery and reinvestment act four years ago this week. it is responsible for saving and creating 2.5 million jobs in this country at a time when the country was on the verge of a depression.

but the stimulus did more than keep the country out of a hole. it built the country right back up. at the end of 2008, the nation's domestic gdp was in dangerous negative territory. after the stimulus package, the economy started growing. the stock market enjoyed the effect of the stimulus as well. four years ago today, the dow closed near 7,000. on friday it closed near 14,000. now, we have had and witnessed 35 consecutive months of private sector job growth. without the stimulus, unemployment was projected to hit 12% in 2010. only three republican lawmakers supported the stimulus. but as the president points out, a whole lot of them enjoyed the benefits. >> and i know you want these job-creating projects in your district. i've seen all those ribbon cuttings. >> by 2010, there were 110 gop lawmakers who lobbied for stimulus money for their home states. all of these lawmakers voted to

kill the bill. the stimulus worked. but republicans just can't shake their demand for more cuts in government spending. in fact, republicans are committed to making sure devastating cuts are going to kick in on march 1st. now these cuts are called the government sequester, and it would hit the middle class and the poor the hardest. no doubt about it. 70,000 children will be kicked off headstart education programs. 109 -- actually, $902 million in loans to start businesses will be flat-out cut out of the system. fema will be forced to reduce state and local grants for emergency management. 600,000 women and children will be cut from food assistance programs, and republicans are proud to let these cuts happen, and they're not backing down. >> let me be very clear, and i would say this to the president as i say it to you. these spending cuts are going to go through on march 1st.

taxes are off the table. >> so they lose the election. they're in the minority in the senate, and they are dictating. harry reid, let's talk than filibuster again, dude. this is just another hostage situation for the republicans. they can hurt the poor and the working class in this country, the sequester, no doubt about it, unless the president gives them exactly what they want. >> if you want to look at ways to find $1.2 trillion in savings over the next decade, let's look at obama care. let's don't destroy the military and just cut blindly across the board. >> sure. let's forget about the 30, maybe 40 million people who are going to get health insurance in this country because of obama care. see, these republicans, my friends, are living in a fantasy world. the president and senate democrats once again have offered a plan with cuts in new revenue. but the gop is ready to deny history.

you see, they're saying that spending doesn't stimulate the economy, and that they basically are sticking to that argument. house speaker john boehner continues to say spending? what's the big problem? it's amazing john boehner can identify any problems considering how little the guy works. count 'em. 19 days. that's how many days the house has been in session since the start of 2013. let's see. six weeks, 19 days. pretty good deal, isn't it? do the math. these house members are only showing up for work 59% of the time. i bet you could get away with that. meanwhile, the people who will get hurt by these cuts are the ones who are working hard, five or six times or seven days a week. now look, folks. this election was about what? the middle class. that's all president obama talked about on the campaign trail was the middle class. and the middle class and the poor are the first ones who will take a hit as long as republicans keep denying reality. get your cell phones out. i want to know what you think. tonight's question.

will republicans hurt average americans just to spite the president? text "a" for yes. text b for no to 67622. you can always go to our blog at ed.msnbc.com. we'll bring you results later on in the show. joining me tonight david cay johnston, a pulitzer prize winning journalist. david cay, great to have you with us tonight. appreciate your time. isn't government spending lower now than what it's been in recent years? aren't we really headed right down this way when it comes to government spending? >> well, we certainly are with this sequester, which will lead to a lot of loss of jobs. it will have a very negative effect on the economy. if you're running a business and you have to fly salespeople or engineers around the country, you're going to discover with 4,000 fewer air traffic controllers, that plane may not get there. all across the economy, this is going to be a terrible problem because this is government spending, ed, that allows the private sector to prosper and to grow.

it's commonwealth spending for common good. >> is there any way to suggest that the stimulus did not help pull us out of a recession? had we not done it, where would we be? >> had we not done it we would be in a terrible disaster. we lost trillions of dollars of wealth, and yet we didn't have rampant homelessness. why? because the stimulus included money to make sure that people who were going to lose their homes, especially with children, didn't end up on the streets. that is certainly not good. >> if we go down the road with the sequester, and the cuts kick in, i mean, are we going to go right back into a recession? and how fast would it happen? >> i think you'd see very quick effects, ed. and let's focus on one piece of this. 600,000 pregnant women and mothers of small children will be cut from the women, infants, and nutrition program. the republicans are always tells us about their reverence for life. really? they're going to have 600,000 poor women and children not have

proper food. there is a life-time effect on development, especially mental development if you don't have proper nutrition in the womb and when you're an infant. but they are determined to cut those poor children who are helpless out of good nutrition. >> david cay johnston, stay with us, please. let's bring in sam stein of the "huffington post." also with us tonight eugene robinson of the "washington post." eugene, what about this politically? if these cuts kick in, and as they follow the plan that barrasso has put out there and says look, these cuts are going to go in and tax increases aren't going to happen, who is going to pay the price politically? >> the republicans are going to pay the price. when you go through something like this or go through a government shutdown which we may have because of the continuing resolution still being up in the air -- look, history tells us that the president comes out smelling better than congress does. and with congress' approval

rating already down to friends and family, they're certainly going to lose more if they actually go through with the sequester. but i think they just can't figure a way to keep themselves from going through this, or they haven't figured through with this, or they haven't figured it out yet. >> sam, if there are senators obviously like rand paul of kentucky who are saying hey, bring on the sequester. are republican leaders at the mercy of just a few tea partiers on this issue? i mean, they've been begging for spending cuts. now they have it. now they're going to take the big bite. they know what it's going to do to the economy and then they can blame president obama. >> i think you're right. but i also think the first chapter of this was the fiscal cliff deal where the party had to swallow, the republican party had to swallow about $600 billion in revenue increases. premised on that was the promise down the road they were going to cut. and the first thing that came up with the sequestration, which satisfied the very basic need to cut government spending, regardless of how it was done or how blunt the impact would be. now, there are some in the

party, including john mccain who say this is insane, we should put some tax loophole closures on the table in exchange for getting rid of these defense cuts. but their voices aren't getting through to leadership right now. so what you have is a republican party that is welcoming sequestration even though six, eight months ago they were worrying about it. >> how can they get away with it and do the math on it to keep this economy going? >> this is not a party that likes math very much. because the math doesn't add up. you can't move toward fiscal sanity without new revenue. >> david, would these spending cuts actually help the economy in any way? that's a non-starter across the board. >> absolutely. we're talking about having more food-borne illnesses. we're talking about -- the government is taking in revenue right now, and we're going to cut the sales force, the irs? this makes sense because? >> good yes.

>> it doesn't make sense. but also you should note that back during the campaign, mitt romney was all for cutting. but if you got him in one of his more sincere moments, he would warn publicly if you cut too fast too quickly, you would risk a short-term recession or worse. and that is something you don't hear from republicans right now. it used to be common sense. you can't cut right now in times of delicate economic growth. now you don't hear that that much. >> eugene, here is the new white house chief of staff, denis mcdonough on the republicans. >> the focus for the president, the lens through which he is going to see the fight is the same lens he has seen each of the fight. what is the impact on middle class families and the kinds of investments that we expect for the economy to grow from the middle out. >> eugene, how can the republicans avoid being the bad guy against the middle class here? i think this is all part of the republican obstruction plan. we saw a record number of filibusters in the last session of the congress come in the senate. and now what we're seeing come from the house. first of all, we're not going to work.

second we're going to let the sequester ride this thing out and blame president obama. that appears to be the plan right now. >> well if this is a plan, they need better planning. they've done the obstruction number before, and it hasn't worked out very well for them. the real issue i think is the internal dynamics within the republican party, the fact that there are sensible members of party who realize you can't cut right now or else you go back into recession. but they have to deal with the tea party wing. and they have to deal with the part that is angry that feels they got rolled in the fiscal cliff negotiation and wants to roll the president, damn the cost. >> sam, would the congress let this sequester kick in and then come back and try to pass something their way? what do you think, just to save face? >> that might be the case. i did an interview with representative jim miranda of west virginia a couple of weeks ago where he predicted that is the outcome. where you do hit sequestration

there is an obvious and tangible economic blowback because of it. and congress sort of gets scared into acting, finding a replacement. the concern i'm hearing now from democrats is that sequestration will happen, and then republicans will introduce a bill to basically tack back the defense cuts portion of it and leave all the social safety programs untouched. and what you end up having there is you force democrats to have to vote against additional defense spending in which they can be labeled soft on defense if they vote no. >> david, what is the worst case scenario for the economy? $85 billion in cuts between now and september 30th would be a real hatchet job on the economy. what would be the worst case scenario? >> well, you're going to see unemployment tick up. now the administration is going to try every way it can to not have that happen. but you're going to see employers not hiring. you're going to see cutbacks in investment and you will see the difference very soon and don't forget all the seniors who won't get meals, who are locked in, the mentally ill who will not

get treatment and be cut from the rolls. >> david cay johnston, sam stein, eugene robinson, thank you very much. share your thoughts with us on twitter at ed show. we always want to know what you think. colonel lawrence wilkerson is here to separate fact from fiction. stay with us.

coming up, this is oscar week. the movie "lincoln" pushes change in the deep south, and "silver linings playbook" is opening eyes on the issue of mental health in this country. oscar-nominated director david o. russell is here tonight to visit with us. and there must be something in the water. marco rubio slams his own immigration proposal? our big panel drinks it all in tonight. you can listen to my radio show at sirius xm radio channel 127 monday through friday, noon to 3:00 p.m. share your thoughts with us on facebook and on twitter use #edshow.

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welcome back to "the ed show." thanks for watching tonight. senator john mccain is once again trying to stir up things on benghazi, claiming that there is a massive cover-up. >> so there are many, many questions, and we have had a massive cover-up on the part -- >> but a massive cover-up of what? i mean -- susan rice said there was a lot of confusion. >> do you care, david? do you care, david? i'm asking you do you care. i'm asking you do you care whether four americans died? the reasons for that, and shouldn't people be held accountable for the fact that four americans died? >> you said there was a cover-up. a cover-up of what? i'm just asking you, a cover-up of what? >> of the information concerning

the deaths of four brave americans. the information has not been forthcoming. you can obviously believe that it has. i know that it hasn't. >> mccain wasn't nearly so hysterical just a few days before at a news conference on benghazi. mccain was addressing the republican tactic of filibustering the hagel confirmation to get more answers on benghazi. >> this are other questions that need to be answered, and we feel that the intervening week and a half almost is sufficient time to get those questions answered. >> so from that comment right there to "meet the press", something must have happened, because mccain wasn't talking about a massive cover-up there. in fact, he seems confident that the questions will get answered. even in his interview with david gregory yesterday, mccain admitted the filibuster of hagel would end. >> but he will be confirmed. and we will have a vote when we

get back. and i'm confident that senator hagel will probably have the votes necessary to be confirmed as the secretary of defense. >> round and round and -- it just doesn't seem to add up, does it? if mccain is filibustering hague toll get answers on benghazi, and if mccain claims there is a massive cover-up, then why would mccain allow the hagel vote to move forward after a week and a half? well, time's up. clock hit right at the number 12, let's move. mccain is interested in making wild accusations, but he's got nothing to back it up. here is president obama in this google town hall he had last week. the president was talking about benghazi last thursday. now, do you think there is a cover-up after you listen to this? here it is. >> we've had more testimony and more paper provided to congress than ever before. and congress is sort of running out of things to ask. >> like 10,000 pages. let's turn to colonel lawrence wilkerson, former chief of staff for the state department during

general colin powell's term, and currently a distinguished visiting professor of government and public policy at the college of william & mary. colonel, good to have you with us tonight. >> good to be here, ed. >> you bet. senators graham tanked susan rice. they have filibusters chuck hagel over benghazi. and now mccain still claims there is a massive cover-up. what is going on here? >> i think what is going on is a bit strange, just as you've implied. let me tell you where i was on friday. i was out at the new naval complex, the bethesda walter reed medical complex, visiting with wounded warriors. these are people who paid almost the maximum price, some would say even more than the maximum price in iraq or afghanistan, triple amputees, double amputees. and we were talking about this. they brought the issue up of why mccain, graham, inhofe, cruz and others are opposing hagel, the

real reason. and, you know, they dismissed inhofe. he never saw a foxhole in his life. they dismissed graham. he is an air force lawyer, never saw combat in his life. they dismissed cruz. they think he is an idiot. but when it came to john mccain, they shrugged their shoulders, and they looked at me and asked me why? this man is a veteran. this man was a prisoner of war. he showed a great deal of courage under stress. what is wrong with john mccain? ed, i asked the same question. what is wrong with john mccain. >> here are some of the benghazi questions mccain raised with david gregory. here it is. >> what did the president do and who did he talk to the night of the attack on benghazi? and why was it? why was it that the people who were evacuated from the consulate the next day were not interviewed the next day? and then they would have known that it was not a spontaneous demonstration. why did the president for two

weeks, for two weeks during the heat of a campaign continue to say he didn't know whether it was a terrorist attack or not? >> after classified and public hearings, are mccain and other republicans still not getting o ha said the republican party seems to be doing. they're adding to its attempt to commit suicide. it's certainly not helping the united states. and the delay of senator hagel as secretary of defense, it's simply unconscionable. >> setting aside the republican grandstanding that we have talk about, is there anything else that we need to know about benghazi that will help news the

future? >> i think one of the things we probably won't know for a long time is just how implicated the intelligence services, particularly the cia and maybe the special operations command at ft. bragg were in this, and how much of that was perhaps not known by secretary of state and others. believe me, ed, i've been there. i know how these things go down. i wonder how fast the information did get in given that there were other bureaucracies involved in it who may be willing to hide their dirty laundry and even their involvement. so this is the kind of thing that, for example, the bay of pigs, you don't find out until 1998 all the details about something that happened in 1961. but none of this -- >> yeah. >> -- none of this stopped the nation in the way that mccain, gram, inhofe, cruz and others want to, particularly with confirming one of the most important ministers in the government, the secretary of defense. >> tonight msnbc, this network will air "hubris: selling the

iraq war." here is what you said the day congress passed a resolution authorizing bush to attack iraq. >> powell walked into my office, and without so much of a fare thee well, he walked over to the window and said "i wonder what will happen when we put 500,000 troops into iraq and comb the country and find nothing." he walked back into his office. >> do you believe the administration cooked the books to sell the war in iraq? >> i didn't know it at the time, and i fought myself for that. i'll go to my grave with that mass failing on my part. but, yes. in retrospect, having done all the research and work that my students and others have done, plus myself, i'm damn sure that the bush administration cooked the books. >> colonel lawrence wilkerson, good to have you on the "ed show" tonight. thank you so much. appreciate it, sir. >> thanks for having me, ed. after record droughts, freak snowstorms, and of course sandy,

a massive climate change rally tries to wake up washington and the country that is next. very little coverage on this. newt gingrich actually tells the truth, and mark sanford comes to jesus. the big panel comes in tonight. stay with us.

we will respond to the threat of climate change, knowing that the failure to do so would betray our children and future generations.

>> welcome back to "the ed show." in his second inaugural address, president obama pledged to address the threat of climate change. well, he's got the attention of a few folks, because yesterday tens of thousands of americans gathered on the national mall in washington, d.c. to urge him to keep his word. an estimated 35 to 50,000 protesters participated in the forward on climate rally in what was billed as the largest climate rally in american history. now, the crowd marched to the white house in opposition to the upcoming keystone xl pipeline decision. the project environmentalists say would cause irreparable damage to our climate. they say the extraction and production of tar sands oil causes actually more emissions than conventional crude. and public water fly supplies, croplands, and recreational opportunities will all be at risk of dangerous tar sands oil spills. president obama's decision on whether to approve the keystone

xl pipeline will really be his first major climate change decision during his second term. many of the folks at the rally, including senator sheldon whitehouse were there to show their support for president obama in hopes that he will make good on his promise and take action. >> it's not just us. there is a man over there in the white house. he has found his voice on climate change. are we going to have his back? >> well, the words "climate change" were not said during any of the three 2012 presidential debates. the majority of the republican party refuses to accept the scientific reality of climate change. ignoring the issue didn't stop. record temperatures, droughts, rising sea levels, super storms, and extreme weather events. and let's not forget that bobby jindal says republicans need to

stop being the stupid party, anti-woman, anti-worker, anti-science. >> if this endeavor becomes a bidding war to see who can come up with the easiest, quickest, and cheapest pathway to greencard possible, this is not going to go well. >> republican hypocrisy is on full display as marco rubio trashes his own policies because the president agrees with him. and luv gov mark sanford is hitting the trail again. >> none of us go through life without mistakes. >> the big panel weighs in next. the state of mississippi joins the 19th century, and bans slavery. the story of their embarrassing mistake is ahead. and director david o. russell's "silver linings playbook" may have an impact far beyond the oscars. my discussion with the director about treating mental illness is ahead. crest pro-health for a we.

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thanks for staying with us tonight. republicans are proving once again that if president obama is for a plan, they're going to be against it, even if it's their own idea. "usa today" published a draft on immigration reform which was supposedly leaked by the white house. republican senator from florida marco rubio immediately denounced the proposal, even though it looks just like his immigration reform plan. the white house calls for new lawful perspective immigrant visa. rubio's plan calls for similar visa reform. the president's proposal calls for strict employment verification. rubio's plan does the same thing. president obama's plan tightens border security. rubio's plan, well, it does the same thing. marco rubio should be absolutely thrilled to have the white house on board with his plan. but he doesn't look at it that way. you see, the core immigration reform plan, they are so similar.

but instead rubio called the president's draft half baked, seriously flawed, and dead on arrival. marco rubio wouldn't give any real reason he is rejecting his own plan. but newt gingrich confessed the truth sunday morning. >> an obama immigration plan is not going to pass the house. an obama plan led by obama in this atmosphere with the level of hostility towards the president and the way he goads the hostility, i think it's very hard to imagine that that bill -- that his bill is going to pass the house. >> let's turn to our panel tonight with democratic strategist chris kofinis, liz mair, and richard wolffe, executive editor of msnbc.com. great to have all of you with us. liz, welcome to "the ed show." great to have you with us. >> thanks for inviting me. >> how accurate is newt gingrich when see is saying that an obama plan has no chance? >> he is accurate. and actually, i think it's important for people to think through the process on this a

little bit and recognize that both what the white house did in leaking this and the way that marco rubio has responded to it might actually be productive in terms of getting immigration reform done. >> how so? >> well, there is a very good piece that benjy sarlin wrote, and i would urge people to look at that. the simple fact is that president obama releasing something that marco rubio can describe as unacceptable and to the left of things, that makes the senate bipartisan approach with which rubio is involved look a lot more palatable to republicans. and the more palatable it looks the more likely to pass. >> your thoughts, richard? what do you think? >> i think newt gingrich had it right there. are lots of ironies involved in this. just a few months ago republicans said this president needs to lead. he needs to put out his own proposals when it comes to things like deficit reduction. yeah, i understand the politics of this. if the president comes out with something, then rubio has to go to another place. and if that helps the end result, the white house is going to be happy. they get to sign this thing at the end.

the president is going to get plenty of glory. but they need the senate republicans to come together on this one. >> that's right. >> but they're so similar. they just can't bring themselves to say you know what? we're going to work with the president on this. marco rubio says it's dead on arrival. chris kofinis, this is just an identity crisis problem, isn't it? >> well, i think it speaks to the fact that there are major divisions within the republican party seemingly on every issue. but on immigration no less, rubio has been out there speaking about immigration, the need for immigration reform. but there are members of his own party and other republican voices that have been condemning him for it. i think the problem here is the republican party has not come to terms with the fact that the president is president. president obama got reelected. he is going to be there for the next four years, and they have to come to terms with the reality of what are they going to address politically in order to solve their long-term problem. and one of their long-term problems is a demographic one. they're alienating hispanics. they play this game where they think they're going to position

themselves in a smart way against the president. what they end up doing is further damage with a key demographic group that they need in order to be electorally successful in the future. >> liz, how do you anticipate the president doing anything to fight the obstruction? >> i think the president is very cognizant of the instruction in inverted comas was going to look like. and i think that's part of why this leak occurred. i think this is something that while it looks as though this is contributing to nothing getting done, i think this is actually going to move the process forward and enable that senate bipartisan plan to get more support than it otherwise would have. >> gosh, i respectfully disagree with that. i think this is all about making sure president obama just doesn't get anything done. >> but i'm -- >> go ahead. >> but i'm sure that you and i both hope that i'm right and you're wrong about that, right? because this is an important issue, and we do need to get something done on it. >> i do not think that the republicans in any way, shape, or form are going to go with any type or form of amnesty. >> i hope you're wrong about

that, but we shall see. >> we're going to have to come to grips with the fact that we have 11 million undocumented workers in this country. we got to do something about it. you can call it amnesty. you can call it grace, whatever. it's something that is going to have to be done. another subject tonight, disgraced republican governor from south carolina who lied about hiking the appalachian trail got caught with his mistress, is asking for a second chance. check out his new ad. >> more recently, i've experienced how none of us go through life without mistakes. but in their wake we can learn a lot about grace, a god of second chance, and be the better for it. in that light, i humbly step forward and ask for your help in changing washington. >> all right, mark sanford is running against 15 other republicans to replace current senator tim scott. richard wolffe, is this going to work?

but i think it just shows for some people, they just can't get away from politics. and i'm not sure that the people in south carolina are going to let him get away with what he is trying to kind of remake himself into. >> liz, what do you think the republicans' opponents will do with this? will they go after his character? will they go after his past?

will they remind people just what happened in 2009? >> i think this makes it a little bit hard for them to do that directly and sort of attribution to use the phraseology that we do in politics. ultimately i think people are more willing to be forgiving in the instance of this scandal as opposed to other scandals we've seen. this a guy who fell in love with somebody and is still in a relationship with that person. this isn't a guy who was paying prostitutes. this isn't a guy who had a bunch of money in his freezer. it's not a guy who was using campaign funds to go buy rolex watches and michael jackson memorabilia. this is kind of a sadly tragic human thing that a lot of people do go through. some people may find it's too much for them to overcome. but i think there are people who will be forgiving. and ultimately in a 15-way primary, he doesn't have to get a lot of votes in order to make it through there. >> okay, liz mair, chris kofinis, richard wolffe, great to have you with us. >> thank you. the oscar buzz around "silver linings playbook" is shedding light on the issue of mental health. director david o. russell is here tonight.

looking forward to that. stay with us.

and we love hearing from our viewers on facebook and on twitter. so for president's day we asked which president would you add to mt. rushmore if you could? on facebook, lonnie bledsoe says fdr. he got us through world war ii and the new deal has brought millions out of poverty, not the mention his courage. darlene says well, she would add president obama just to see the heads explode on fox news. i like that one. and mack wrote i say john f. kennedy. he paid the ultimate price, and president obama deserves a mountain of his own. go to our facebook page. you can join in on the conversation. and don't forget to like "the ed show" when you are there. appreciate that. almost 150 years after the ratification of the 13th amendment, mississippi finally gets its act together. that's next. we'll be right back.

time heals all wounds, right? 148 years after the civil war, mississippi finally ratified the 13th amendment. that's abolishing slavery. and it's all thanks to steven spielberg's film "lincoln." after watching the movie, dr. ranjan batra over the university of mississippi got inspired to go do some research. he wanted to know more. he found out after the civil war, four states actually rejected the 13th amendment. all four states eventually ratified, but mississippi was the last to do so in 1995. however, mississippi never officially ratified the 13th amendment abolishing slavery. their former secretary of state dick molpus failed to send a copy to the registrar. why it was never sent was simply unknown. after figuring this out, dr.

patra teamed up with his colleague kevin sullivan. they brought the error to the attention of the current mississippi secretary of state, delbert hosemann. hosemann agreed to send the resolution to the federal registrar, and finally, on february 7th of this year, not long ago, mississippi became the last state in the union to ratify the 13th amendment. they were only about 150 years late. it's amazing when you think about it. a century and a half after his death, president abraham lincoln is still fighting slavery. if it wasn't for the film "lincoln," the 13th amendment may never have been ratified in the state of mississippi. tonight in our survey, i asked you will republicans hurt average americans just to spite the president? 99% of you say yes. 1% of you say no. coming up, a brilliant, and i mean brilliant movie about an american family has received eight oscar nominations.

oscar-nominated director of "silver linings playbook" david o. russell will join us next. stay with us.

maybe i didn't spend enough time with you. growing up i spent too much time with your brother. it might have made you feel worse about your behavior. but i didn't know anything. i didn't know how to handle it.

i mean, it's about us spending time now. i want to do everything i can to help you get back on your feet. that's -- that's the whole point here. yeah. i wish you watched games with me so then we could talk. we could get into things. that was robert de niro playing the father of a man suffering from bipolar disorder in the film "silver linings playbook." the film is not named in all seven major oscar categories, including best picture, director, adapted screenplay, and all four acting categories. the first film in more than 30 years to achieve that distinction. this is going to be a tough one to beat on sunday night at the academy awards, folks. i was very impressed with it. it was very entertaining, informative. it has it all. the film stars bradley cooper

who plays a bipolar man recently released from a mental hospital, attempting to put his life back together. to the film's director, david o. russell, this movie is personal. russell has watched his own son struggle with bipolar disorder. and earlier this month, russell and the actor cooper met with vice president joe biden to discuss mental health care in this country. biden's office noted the trio agrees on the importance of acceptance, understanding, and access to treatment for those with mental illness. russell and cooper also met with senator debbie stabenow of michigan and assisted her in introducing the excellence in mental health act. the bill would expand access to federally qualified mental health centers and order the facilities to offer a standard range of services, including support for families and 24-hour crisis care. joining us tonight on "the ed show," david o. russell, the oscar-nominated director and

screenwriter of "silver linings playbook." mr. russell, great to have you with us tonight. my wife said we were going to this movie. i went. it was very, very important. and i use the word "important" because i think when i saw this, i thought i bet is there is a lot of americans, a lot of families out there that know someone like this or know of a family like this. what -- your inspiration, your son in this, and how did this all play out for you, putting this together? >> well, ed, i want to thank you for having me on the show. i'm a fan of the show, and i appreciate you having me. >> thank you. >> sir. >> you know, our family has lived through this for, you know, going on 18 years. and, you know, you feel isolated, you know. and when you go to a school like the glen home school in connecticut, you can meet other families who have been through this. you can share stories. you can share emotions. you can also share strategies and solutions. since the film's come out, i've had many, many people that i never realized were all around me come up and tell me their stories. and i now realize that it's

everywhere. >> it is in a lot of places in our society. and now you've touched so many people. a bipartisan bill is now working its way through. you've got to feel really gratified for that. >> i think the timing of it was good for the legislators. i mean, i've been working on this for a long time before i ever made this film. the legislators in washington have been trying to get parity for mental health with heart disease, diabetes, other treatments that people need preventative health care for and often is not included in their health care. so it was good timing that at the same time that debbie stabenow was trying to -- who has a personal experience with this. almost everybody involved has a personal experience. it was her father. and the guy across the aisle, senator blount from missouri, he has personal experience with it. she said she knew when she looked in his eyes. you can tell. you look in someone's eyes, and there is a human compassion that knows. and they have been working on this. so they grabbed on to the dialogue about the film, and

they said this can help us, you know. and so me and bradley were glad to go down there to washington, anything we could do to try to help. i mean, i've seen so many families try to put together the funding or to find the right programs locally or anywhere. it's not easy. >> how hard was it to bring this to the screen? >> well, it took five years, you know. sydney pollack, the late great director, and anthony minghella, they both died the year they gave me the book. i wish they were here to see the movie. sydney gave me this book by matthew quick, who wrote a very beautiful novel. i love specific places. i love this neighborhood in philadelphia as i loved the neighborhoods in "the fighter" as i loved the neighborhoods that martin scorsese has done. i love those places. and this is set in that place. he gave me the book, and i wrote it for many years. and couldn't get the financing until after we had made "the fighter." and finally harvey weinstein helped us put it together. and i was so glad by that time

jennifer lawrence had graduated high school. she was perfect to play the role of this woman fighting her own mental health issues, and bradley cooper just totally inhabited the spirit of my son, which i knew he could do when i looked in his eyes and i met him, and i saw that he had had his own challenges in his own life that he related to this picture. and robert de niro also knows people who have faced this. so he brought it all. but robert de niro brought his soul to the picture. our picture is about that emotion. >> it was amazing. and it has some very entertaining moments in it. it was very -- there are some funny moments in there too. i mean, i think bradley cooper, when he was doing that script, i was wondering, this guy's got to be winging this a little bit. he has so much passion. he is so into this. this can't be just a memorized script. but i was just really fascinated by the movie. it was great work on your part. >> it was dialogue.